Overhead garage door hinge



Sept. 23, 1969 H. P. LIPKING 3,467,983

OVERHEAD GARAGE DOOR HNGE Filed Feb. 23, 1966 I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig.3

Henry P. Llpkvng IN VI-I N TOR.

m @zum WWW U.S. Cl. 16-163 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A mounting bracket for an overhead door of the type swingable from a lowered vertical position to a raised horizontally disposed position and adapted to .be supported from a door opening framing member spaced above and below the lower and upper portions of the opening. The bracket is provided with upper and lower upstanding guide and hinge arms with their lower and upper ends pivotally secured to the mounting bracket and the free end of the guide arm is pivotally secured to a lower portion of the door while the upper free end of the guide arm includes roller means rollingly engaged with the upper portion of the corresponding upstanding side marginal edge portion of the door, means being provided to limit swinging movement of the upper end of the guide arm away from the door openin g.

This invention relates to a novel and useful overhead garage door hinge assembly and more specifically to a door hinge assembly specifically designed to support a garage door in a garage doorway opening for movement between a substantially vertically disposed position closing the garage door opening and a raised horizontally disposed position permitting a vehicle or the like to -be moved through the garage doorway opening.

The door hinge assembly of the instant invention comprises an improvement over a similar invention disclosed in my prior U.S. Patent No. 2,751,624, dated June 26, 1956, and also more conventional types of garage door supporting hinge assemblies.

The door hinge of the instant invention eliminates the necessity of the pair of door tracks of more conventional garage doors provided with rollers rollingly engaged with.

the tracks to support the conventional garage doors for the desired movement from a lowered upstanding position to a raised horizontally disposed position and therefore does not require a portion of the door hinge assembly to be suspended from rafters or a ceiling in the associated garage or building. Still further, because of its unique construction the overhead garage door hinge assembly of the instant invention does not require overhead clearance above the upper portion of the associated garage door opening.

Another feature of the door hinge assembly of the instant invention is that there is only one portion thereof that engages the associated garage door for guiding the garage door during linear movement of the latter relative to that one portion of the door hinge assembly and therefore the door hinge assembly of the instant invention operates with little noise.

Yet another feature of this invention is, in combination with eliminating the necessity of any suspension members -being secured to rafters or the ceiling of an associated garage or building, that the hinge assembly does not have any portion thereof disposed in the lower half of the associated garage door opening when the associated garage door is in the full open position. Still further, the garage door hinge assembly of the instant invention utilizes a unique manner of counterbalancing the weight of the garage door whereby substantially the total weight of the garage door can be counterbalanced when the door is in its vertical closed position and the counterbalancing effect United States Patent O Frice 3,467,983 Patented Sept. 23, 1969 of the door hinge assembly on the garage door is gradually reduced as the garage door is swung to its raised horizontally disposed position.

The main object of this invention is to provide an improved garage door hinge assembly including structural features for supporting an associated garage door for movement between a lowered vertical position and a raised upper horizontally disposed position without the necessity of suspension elements for the garage door hinge assembly being supported from the rafters or the ceiling of the associated garage or building.

Another object of this invention, in accordance with the immediately preceding object, is to provide a garage door hinge assembly that supports the associated garage door for movement between the lowered vertical position and a raised horizontal position in a manner such that overhead clearance for the garage door of the upper portion of the associated garage door opening is not needed.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide an improved garage door hinge assembly in accordance with the preceding objects and including structural features which will enable the associated garage door to be moved between the raised and lowered positions substantially noiselessly.

A final object of this invention to be specifically enumerated herein is to provide an improved garage door hinge assembly in accordance with the preceding objects which will conform to conventional forms of manufacture, be of simple construction and easy to use so as to provide a device that will be economically feasible, long lasting and relatively trouble free in operation.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference vbeing had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIGURE l is a fragmentary elevational view of a portion of a building structure defining one side of a door opening in which an overhead door assembly is mounted by means of the door hinge assembly of the instant invention, FIGURE 1 being a representation as seen from the inside of the building structure;

FIGURE 2 is a vertical sectional view of the assembly illustrated in FIGURE 1 taken substantially upon a plane passing through the door opening to the right of the door hinge assembly illustrated in FIGURE 1 and with the garage door shown in a closed position in solid lines and in a partially open position in phantom lines;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view similar to that of FIGURE 2 but showing the garage door in a fully open position;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged fragmentary horizontal sectional view taken substantially upon the plane indicated by the section line 4 4 of FIGURE 2; and

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary enlarged sectional view taken substantially upon a plane indicated by the section line 5 5 of FIGURE 2.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings the numeral 10 generally designates a building structure including a wall 12 in which a door opening 14 is defined by means of a door frame 16.

The door frame 16 includes a pair of vertical upright member 18, one of which is not shown, interconnected at their upper ends by means of a header member 20 extending therebetween.

The door hinge assembly of the instant invention is utilized in pairs although only one hinge assembly is illustrated in the drawings and will be described herein. Each hinge assembly is generally designated by the reference numeral 22 and is secured to the corresponding upright member 18 and is operably connected to the corresponding side edge of the garage door 24 mounted in the door opening 14.

Each hinge assembly 22 includes an L-shaped mounting bracket 26 having a mounting iiange portion secured to the corresponding upright member 18 in any conventional manner such as by fasteners 28. Each bracket 26 also includes a support ange portion 32 disposed at right angles to and projecting inwardly from the corresponding mounting ange portion 30.

The upper end of a hinge arm 34 is pivotally secured to each support ange portion 32 by means of a suitable pivot fastener 36 and it may be seen from FIGURE l of the drawings that the pivoted upper terminal end portions of the hinge arms 34 are laterally oifset from the plane containing the lower end portion of that hinge arm. The lower end. of the hinge arms are pivotally secured to anchor members 38 secured to the door 24 in any convenient manner such as by fasteners 40 and the lower end portion of each hinge arm 34 is provided with a plurality of longitudinally spaced apertures 41.

In addition, each flange portion 32 has an anchor pin 42 secured thereto on which a grooved roller 44 is journalled. One end of a heavy-duty expansion spring 45 is hooked as at 48 and is seated in each of the rollers 44. The other end of each expansion spring 46 is also hooked as at 50 and engaged with a hook end portion 52 of an anchor S4 selectively engageable in any pair of adjacent apertures 41 formed in the corresponding hinge arm 34. Accordingly, it may be seen that the tension of the expansion springs 46 may be adjusted as desired.

Each of the support ange portions 32 also has the lower end of a guide arm 56 pivotally secured thereto by means of a pivot fastener 58 and the upper end of each guide arm 56 has a resilient roller 60 journalled thereon.

A guide track 62 is secured to and extends along the inner surface of each opposite side marginal edge portion of the door 24 and the rollers 60 are operable along the guide tracks 62. From FIGURE 2 of the drawings it may be seen that each guide track 62 includes a laterally directed abutment 64 at its upper end portion with which the assocated resilient roller 60 is engageable and that each abutment 64 terminates outwardly in a downturned end portion 66 ared at its lower end as at 68 to form a pocket for seatingly receiving the corresponding roller 60.

From FIGURE 3 of the drawings it may further be seen that an abutment stop 70 is secured to and projects inwardly from each of the support ange portions 32 and limits inward swinging movement of the upper ends of the guide arms 66, the lower end portions of the guide arms 56 projecting below the pivot fasteners 58 being engageable with the abutments or stops 70i to limit counterclockwise swinging movement of the guide arms from the position illustrated in FIGURE 2 of the drawings t0 the position illustrated in FIGURE 3 of the drawings.

In operation, assuming that the garage door 24 is in the closed vertically disposed position illustrated in FIGURE 2 of the drawings, the operator of the garage door has merely to pull out on the lower end of the door 24 in order to swing the door toward the phantom line position illustrated in FIGURE 2 of the drawings. As soon as the upper end of the door 24 has been pivoted from beneath the header member 20, the door 24 may be readily swung further in a counterclockwise direction as illustrated in FIGURE 2 of the drawings and slid upwardly relative to the upper end of the guide arms 56,'

upward swinging movement of the door 24 requiring less eifort as the door 24 is swung past the phantom line position illustrated in FIGURE 2 of the drawings. Continued counterclockwise swinging movement of the garage door and upward sliding movement of the door relative to the upper ends of the guide arms S6 will result in the door 24 ultimately being positioned as illustrated in FIGURE 3 of the drawings with the guide rollers 60 engaging the ends of the guide tracks 62 adjacent the normally lowermost edge portion of the door 24. Of course, as the door 24 approaches the full raised position illustrated in FIGURE 3 of the drawings, the expansion springs 46 have been appreciably foreshortened due to the reduction of the distance between the anchors 54 and the rollers 44 and therefore as the door 24 approaches its full raised position only the momentum of the door 24 is required and utilized to move it into its fully open position.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modiiications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. In combination with a door opening structure including a pair of spaced upright portions dening a door opening therebetween and an upright door panel member disposed in and closing said opening, an overhead door supporting hinge assembly comprising mounting means supported from each of said upright portions and spaced above and below the lower and upper portions of said opening, a pair of upstanding hinge arms pivotally secured at their upper ends to the corresponding mounting means for rotation about axes extending therebetween and at their lower ends to corresponding opposite side upright marginal edge portions of said door panel member for rotation about axes generally paralleling and disposed appreciably below the first mentioned axes, a pair of upstanding guide arms pivotally secured at their lower ends to the corresponding mounting means independent of said hinge arms for rotation about axes extending therebetween, the upper ends of said guide arms and the adjacent upright and upper portions of the opposite side marginal edge portions of said door panel member including coacting guide means carried thereby and extending therealong, respectively, for guiding the upper ends of said guide arms along said upright marginal edge portions of said door panel member, and means operatively connected between said guide arms and said door opening structure limiting pivotal movement of said guide arms in at least one direction relative to said door opening structure.

2. 'Ihe combination of claim 1 including means operatively connected between said door panel member and said door opening structure yieldingly urging said hinge arms in one direction of rotation relative to said structure at least after initial swinging movement of said door panel member away from a fully closed position.

3. The combination of claim 1 wherein said coacting means comprises roller means on said guide arms journalled for rotation about an axis generally paralleling said axes and track surface defining means on said door panel member extending along said upper portions of the opposite side marginal edge portions of said door panel member.

4. The combination of claim 3 wherein said roller means comprises a wheel with at least the outer circumferential portions thereof being resilient.

5. The combination of claim 3 wherein said track surface means includes means at the upper end portion thereof engageable by said roller means and operable to limit movement of said roller means in one direction along said track surface means.

6. The combination of claim 1 including elongated expansion springs connected at one set of corresponding ends to said hinge arms and at the other set of corresponding ends to said mounting means, said springs generally paralleling said hinge arms when said door panel member is in the closed position, being inclined relative to said hinge arms when said door panel member is pivoted toward its open position, and yieldingly urging pivotal movement of said hinge arms in a direction acting to move said door panel member toward its open position after initial movement of said panel member toward said open position.

7. The combination of claim 6 wherein said hinge arms and said expansion springs include coacting means for securing the corresponding ends of said springs to said hinge arms at points spaced longitudinally therealong.

8. A door supporting hinge assembly for supporting an overhead door of the type swingable from a lowered vertical position to a raised horizontally disposed position, said hinge assembly comprising mounting means adapted to be supported from a door framing member spaced above and below the lower and upper portion of a door opening defined by said door framing member, an upstanding hinge arm pivotally secured at its upper end to said mounting means for rotation about a horizontal axis extending across said door opening and adapted to be pivotally secured at its lower end to said door for rotation about an axis generally paralleling and disposed appreciably below the iirst mentioned axis, an upstanding guide arm pivotally secured at its lower end to said mounting means independent of said hinge arm for rotation about an axis also generally paralleling the -rst mentioned axis, the upper end of said guide arm including guide means adapted to guidingly engage said door and move therealong, and coaeting means operatively carried by said guide arm and said mounting means limiting pivotal movement of said guide arm in at least one direction relative to said mounting means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 5/1937 Byrne 49-204 9/1965 Doring 49-205 U.S. Cl. X.R. 49-205 

